What does the team need to do to play better?..

[raspsa]

Reducing turnovers is a function of players knowing eachother and knowing the system.

The solution (and answer to OPs question) is time on the court together...simple as that.

Spurs aren't going to solve their chemistry issues by making trades and continuing to add new pieces to their team. This is the team that will take them to the playoffs and this is the team with enough talent to contend for a le.

Exactly right.

[TJastal]

My major gripe right now

Bogans is not starting material. The offense is bogging down with him in there and I don't think he can effectively defend the top tier guards in the league. He is no Bruce Bowen. He shouldn't even be on the roster, his spot should have been given to the guy who earned it, Malik Hairston.

In his place:

Spurs need someone to help create offense in the 1st unit. Whether this is Manu or Mason, Jr doesn't matter. Personally I favor Roger.

I haven't watched the entire game yet, but I've browsed the box score and I see Roger got a whole 3 minutes of action. He's been playing well, I don't get this. Against a high octane offense like Denver he should be playing 30 minutes. This reminds me of the bulls' loss... Pop played the out of all his aging veterans all game long and wonders why one of the most young, athletic teams in the league won out in the end. Duh, play your young guys idiot! Mahinmi, Hairston, Blair, Hill.... all got little or no court time that game.

[ploto]

Poor execution is the main culprit.

[Mal]

Jefferson is not a problem. Last year Spurs played Finley at SF, so Jefferson with or without getting involved on offense is a progress.

Problem is Parker`s mentality. He is playing selfish. He`s playing alone or only with Manu and TD. He isn`t involving anyother player on the floor. He is ballhogging.

Whole offens is static, which makes good teams easy to double team Duncan and cut off penetration. With 33 % for beyond the arc, this team can`t create layups for Tony, Manu, Jefferson or physical plays for Duncan. Most turnovers are made on double teams and help defense. This makes stupid passes or lost balls. Whole offens system must be changed.

What more. Spurs 2007 and earlier had Bowen waiting in corner and he was deadly for there. He involve defender, who can`t give him open look.. Oberto was setting tons of picks. Parker, Gino and Duncan, had space and many one on one plays. Now we have Jefferson , who is slasher not shooter. His defender can let him outside and help with defending penetrations and Duncan. Dice is static. He isn`t making jump shoots and setting picks. It isn`t strange that offens is better with active Blair then Dice.

sorry for my english

[Spurs Brazil]

-Parker is nowhere near the guy we saw last year..all the hype in the off-season, all the talk about how he's our new leader..his scoring looks better than earlier, but his D is horrible, he's turning it over too much, and he needs to pass better..he really needs to clean up..we need him to be our #1 scorer..

For me TP is the key. So far his J is MIA, his defense is terrible and I don't know if it's because his play with NT or injury he can't play well for 48 minutes.

I don't see TP playing this bad since 2005.

But I think sooner or later we'll see the great Tony back and then it'll open things for others; Dice will get more opens shots and RJ may have more space to do his things.

[temujin]

when players are put in the wrong positions and have to make plays they aren't accustomed to, you'll see missed FGs and turnovers..we're seeing a lot of this..

your post is obviously RJ related, as usual..I think you're his ex-fiancee TBH, you seem to have an unhealthy hatred for the guy for no reason..

I am asking you this again.

Are you Jefferson's agent?

The Bucks are much better off without this guy.
He is making an unrealistic amount of money.
Carmelo just KILLED him last night.
Daddy vs the kindergarden kid.
He would KILL him anytime, night in, night out.
If Jefferson makes 14 Millions ($, but still), then Carmelo should be making 150 millions.
This Jefferson guy is good for the Clippers.
We all noticed him smiling on the bench in the Boston game, while Boston was up by 11-15 in the 3rd.
Unacceptable. Never seen a Spur do that in long time.

As for the rest.

-Duncan is playing unrealistically well. Spurs would be 4-13 without him. Started off slowly, but that's because he did a lot of swimming in the summer, and it takes about two months to get the fast fibers back in shape after swimming a lot (I can tell you that). However, his minutes are going up fast and if he goes on like this, he will be done by March, exactly like last year.

-Parker has been playing continuously from July. Except for a couple of injuries. He will certainly won't get any better than he was against Denver. yes the defense is horrible. So what are you going to do bench one of the few scorers?

-Ginobili. He is still the most intelligent player on the team. I honestly don't know whether he can be more reactive than what we have seen, it might be possible. As for the uture, he has made it VERY clear that he would not play for a looser, that he'd rather go back to Europe.

-McDyess. A smiling version of Kurt Thomas.

-Bogans. So far, he has exceeded the wildest expectations. On a good team -say the Lakers, Denver or Celtics- he would play garbage time minutes. On the current Spurs, he is starting and playing >20'. Enough said.

the subs.

-Finley. A non smiling, older version of 2008 Finley. In some games (Utah, Portland) he seemed ready for Sunday mornings pick up games. Amazingly, he is out the starting five.

-Blair. The only player that looks like a Spur of old. Small, makes mistakes, but a beast; best addition in years.

-Mason. Played a couple of good games. Following the path of Udoka. Expendable.

-Bonner. Good with the terrible teams -sometimes VERY good- bad with the good teams. Overall, he is getting some more rebounds, but don't count on the guy in big games. He is also Clippers material, overall.

-Hill. The Spurs could win les with Claxton, Udrih and Vaughn as back-up point guards. So he is certainly an upgrade. The problem is that he is NOT a point guard at all. You are born a point guard, you just don't become one. Incidentally, Ty Lawson, the guy that ran circles around Parker last night, was acquired by Denver from stupid Minnesota for a future draft pick.

-Ratcliff. Yes, they are actually paying this guy. Maybe he is telling very funny jokes in the lockeroom. Although he has shown to be totally lost on the irrationally complicated offense, he could still be used.

-Haislips, Mahinmi. Non en ies.

The coach.
Maybe, just maybe, Duncan, Ginobili, McDyess, Finley are NOT the only guys that get older on the team. We all get older.

[Chomag]

i hate to say it, but i really do think parker is the problem. the spurs are have more talent and offense than ever but it's just not fitting together. spurs need to bring in a point guard with the court vision and passing skills to control the offense. i would say parker's passing ability is worse than ginobili and duncan's. his assists mainly comes from his drive and kicks. he lacks the creative playmaking other elite point guards possess.

like how andre miller screwed with the blazers, parker is screwing with the spurs. parker needs the ball in his hands to be effective. he has no 3 pt shot and his spot up shooting is shaky. once parker gives up the basketball, the threat is removed and the spurs lose one player on offense. in the past parker could get away with this because the spurs didn't have any other offensive options outside the big 3 but it's different now. now when parker has the ball, jefferson is useless unless he is lucky enough to get a drive and kick. when jefferson or ginobili has the ball, parker is no threat.

too bad the spurs will never consider trading parker so the spurs need to find some other way to work through this. a less dramatic solution would be to trade george hill for a good passing back up point guard. someone like kyle lowry or jarret jack. with so many offensive options spurs can't afford to have two shoot first point guards on the team. they lack glue and ginobili's passing isn't good enough, they need another passing point guard.

It would be really helpful if we had a pass-first set up the offense type of point guard. However Pop allways wants all of his Point guards to be scorers so I don't think it would work.

[bless1187]

the things bothering me about this team are:

1.) 11 men rotation: yes, we have a deep team, and pop does do a lot of tinkering early on, but we cannot be using a 10 - 11 men rotation each night. the last successful team that did really well with a 10 men rotation that i could remember was the Memphis Grizzlies team of 2005; it's just very hard to have a 10 - 11 men rotation; since there's not really enough minutes to be spread around and its really hard for the player to find there sync and that really shows throughout this early season.

2.) Richard Jefferson: i personally think part of the failure of the early season with Richard Jefferson has to be on both the team and himself. As for the team, i think it's on both Pop and Tony to get RJ more involved in the offense and not turn him into a spot up shooter, since that isn't really his game; and as for RJ, i hope he really needs to get more aggressive on offensive and stop deferring so much to Tim and Tony.

3.) Matt Bonner: i personally never been a fan of Matt Bonner. This guy is really the same exact player as Brian Scalabrine of the Celtics. Matt should be at MOST our 4th big averaging at most 10 mpg, but instead Matt still seems to be preferred big next to T. Duncan because he could spread the floor. As far as i know i want my PG, SG, and SF to be able to spread the floor, but i want my PF and C to play tough in the post and rebound, and don' t ever compare M. Bonner to R. Horry since R. Horry could spread the floor, but he was also known for his defense and other intangibles.

[#2!]

This could be part of it, TP is a scoring PG, maybe orchestrating an offense isn't his strongest quality.

exactly, its not a huge deal b/c his other strengths are so great. Pop is one of the best play calling coaches in the league, and he's not doing it this season.

This is why a trade would not be a good thing right now, because the players coming in need to join a well executed system to be effective, and that doesn't yet exist. Unfortunately, when people say that time is the solution it is (frustratingly) true. So while a trade for a long defender in the 3-5 positional range could benefit the team, it won't help if the players on the court still aren't executing.


So, Pop taking back over is the first step, IMO, towards getting the team on track. It allows for all the players on the court to just play, w/o worrying about being confused on the call or about trusting each other either. They only have to trust the coach.

[#2!]

I am asking you this again.

Are you Jefferson's agent?

The Bucks are much better off without this guy.
He is making an unrealistic amount of money.
Carmelo just KILLED him last night.
Daddy vs the kindergarden kid.
He would KILL him anytime, night in, night out.
If Jefferson makes 14 Millions ($, but still), then Carmelo should be making 150 millions.
This Jefferson guy is good for the Clippers.
We all noticed him smiling on the bench in the Boston game, while Boston was up by 11-15 in the 3rd.
Unacceptable. Never seen a Spur do that in long time.

You're correct about RJ's defense, he is not capable of being top tier defender on a nightly basis. However Carmelo will be gameplanned for extensively in any playoff situation, so the team won't be leaving the task to RJ alone.


And that's completely untrue about the whole smiling on the bench thing. The cameramen are always catching tim, tony, manu ( everyone) joking in a loss. Its impossible to judge them on it since no one can hear what they're saying.


Yes, its frustrating, but also part of the spurs personality. Not too high, not too low.

[EmptyMan]

It is weird watching this team. This team is stacked yet they keep losing.

[pjjrfan]

They just have to start playing better ball. All of them, Tim is doing a great job but he had some horrible turnovers in the Boston game, Manu same thing, but his offense has been inconsistent, Tony the same thing, and his offense has been inconsistent. The bench along with Tim have been the only bright spots. My feeling is that Pop is looking to make Manu the scapegoat, ala Rose and Bowen. This team is not without talent, but it seems that they just can't match the opponents energy and focus this last two games. Pop is going to have to make some major decisions on playing time and how the offense is run, my take, bench Jefferson, and not because of his poor play, but because of his ty lackadaisical at ude. Manu would also be an option to see if he can get his head together. But this unit has been down this road before, It seems like they play better once they hit a bottom of sorts, it happened in 99, in 03 and again in 07 with the famous lockerroom speech by Pop, "no one is coming in the door who will help us, this team is it." The guys just have to pick themselves up and get back in the fight. Fortunately no team is running away just yet.

[ducks]

duncan is playing well but against boston he had 6 turnovers

all players need to stop turning the ball over

[ducks]

manu had some very bad passes to duncan
4 feet away he throw the bal 150 mhs
wtf
sean said manu and duncan have played together why that fast past

[LakerLanny]

Honestly, it really doesn't matter what the *purs do because the Lakers own the NBA, now and forever.

[ducks]

tp is playing worse this year because pop wants him to try to get the new 53% in
tp looked agreessive and started to look great in the 4 quarter against nuggets

pop might just need to get tp to start playing like last year and say forget the other people

[TIMMYD!]

I'm trying to forget all the dumb passes that were made last game.

[murpjf88]

if it takes the spurs this long to break in new acquisitions, they might as well not make any moves at the trade deadline. They won't be ready for the playoffs.

[The Truth #6]

I think pop appreciates passing. He initially wanted Tony to be like Stockton a little but gave up forcing that and focused on his strengths.

[temujin]

Honestly, it really doesn't matter what the *purs do because the Lakers own the NBA, now and forever.

Stern owns the NBA.

And he won't allow a Lakers repeat.

How sweet that will be, considering that the Lakers ARE the best team.

[TD 21]

Spurs are 5th in the league in TO's per game. That is not exactly terrible.

They're also always amongst the 3-5 slowest paced teams in the league. Obviously, a slower, less frenetic pace lends itself to fewer turnovers naturally.

[spurtech09]

take care of the ball.....

[024]

ginobili is the glue that holds this team together. in a perfect world, ginobili and parker would be able to switch bodies. ginobili as the 6'2 point guard and parker as the 6'6 shooting guard.

spurs need a playmaking point guard. since they won't be trading parker anytime soon, they must have at least one passing point guard that can play when ginobili isn't on the floor. right now, only ginobili is succeeding in integrating the spurs new offensive weapons. when he isn't on the floor, the ball just either goes to isolations for parker and duncan, a pick and roll for parker, or a set play for a jump shot. this worked in the past but it wastes the talents of the spurs' new additions. especially since the spurs sacrificed defense for offense, the spurs can't expect the same offensive output with less defense will win them more games.

[Josepatches_]

-Parker is nowhere near the guy we saw last year..all the hype in the off-season, all the talk about how he's our new leader..his scoring looks better than earlier, but his D is horrible, he's turning it over too much, and he needs to pass better..he really needs to clean up..we need him to be our #1 scorer..

IMO that's exactly what we don't need.This year we have more players who can score.

He has to make the team play basketball. Better 4-5 players with 10+ points than TP scoring 30

[TIMMYD!]

Dice as predicted is worthless, why would we give a washed up undersized player 10mil? Ian hasnt played 1 min, Jefferson has not been used properly. We are a lottery team.

Unless the spurs make major moves such as trading Manu who is no longer THE MANU....or dealing for a good 7 footer we will be a lottery team or a first round out.

WTF are you talking about 10 million?